Business Commons^™

Metaverse Marketing: How The Metaverse Will Shape The Future Of Consumer Research And Practice, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes, Yichuan Wang, Ali A. Alalwan, Sun J. (Grace) Ahn, Janarthanan Balakrishnan, Sergio Barta, Russell Belk, Dimitrios Buhalis, Reto Felix

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The initial hype and fanfare from the Meta Platforms view of how the metaverse could be brought to life has evolved into an ongoing discussion of not only the metaverse's impact on users and organizations but also the societal and cultural implications of widespread usage. The potential of consumer interaction with brands within the metaverse has engendered significant debate within the marketing‐ focused discourse on the key challenges and transformative opportunities for marketers. Drawing on insights from expert contributors, this study examines the marketing implications of the hypothetical widespread adoption of the metaverse. We identify new research directions and propose …

Extending The Diversity Conversation: Fashion Consumption Experiences Of Underrepresented And Underserved Women, Lena Cavusoglu, Deniz Atik

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research brings in the voice of underserved and underrepresented women of various racial or ethnic origins and social classes, who have differing buying powers, sexual orientations, body shapes, and physical appearances, into the conversation of fashion diversity. Through a qualitative inquiry with 38 semi-structured in-depth interviews, the researchers analyzed the consumption experiences of diverse women to expose what the fashion scene is lacking. The study's main contribution is the depiction of overlooked diversity categories in fashion, such as the non-White and non-Black women of color, women of average sizes, and women with characteristics that the fashion industry has long …

Overcoming Bias Against Funding Of Female-Led Entrepreneurial Initiatives: The Democratizing Influence Of Online Crowdlending Platforms, Shivendu Pratap Singh, Trina A. Sego, Shikhar Sarin

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Crowdlending platforms are becoming an increasingly prominent alternative funding channel for marginalized entrepreneurs to traditional financing. We examine whether the gender bias generally seen in conventional funding channels extends to the funding of female-led ventures in online platforms and how this potential bias affects service businesses. Our analysis of the KIVA crowdlending platform suggests that while online crowdlending platforms exert a democratizing influence on the funding of female entrepreneurial ventures, female-led service businesses were less able to get financing, mainly for larger loan amounts and longer loan terms. Our findings have significant implications for female entrepreneurs working for marginalized/social causes.

Harnessing The Power Within: The Consequences Of Salesperson Moral Identity And The Moderating Role Of Internal Competitive Climate, Omar S. Itani, Nawar N. Chaker

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this research is to examine the notion of salesperson moral identity as a prosocial individual trait and its associated effects on customer and coworker relationships. In addition, this study examines the underlying processes in which these effects occur as well as the moderating role of internal competitive climate. Our empirical investigation of business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals reveals that moral identity has both direct and indirect effects on a salesperson’s customer- and team-directed outcomes. Specifically, our results demonstrate that salesperson moral identity positively affects both salesperson-customer identification and organizational identification, which, in turn, impact customer service provision and …

Engaging With Omnichannel Brands: The Role Of Consumer Empowerment, Omar S. Itani, Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro, Zahy Ramadan

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

This study aims to integrate brand and retailer levels variables to examine the direct and indirect relationships between omnichannel retailing and consumer engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data are collected from a sample consumers of different omnichannel retailing brands operating in the skin care industry. Partial least squares structural equation modeling is utilized.

Findings

The study finds brand channels' integrated interactions (process and content consistency) to increase consumer brand engagement. Findings show retailer consumer empowerment to intensify the impact of omnichannel retailing on consumer engagement. Results also show brand channels' integrated interactions to increase consumer brand familiarity, which mediates the effect …

How Do Consumers In General Evaluate, Judge, And Act Toward Shoplifting? The Moderating Effects Of Personal Characteristics And Motives, Juehui Shi, Ngoc Cindy Pham, Claudio Schapsis, Tofazzal Hossain, Arturo Z. Vasquez-Parraga

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite the seriousness of shoplifting, consumers’ evaluations, judgements, and intentions toward shoplifting remain underexplored by scholars from business ethics, marketing, retailing, and consumer behavior. We propose a new shoplifting ethics model, which integrates Hunt and Vitell’s theory of ethics with Nadeau, Rochlen, and Tyminski’s typology of shoplifting, by incorporating the moderators of consumers’ personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, income) and shoplifting motives (i.e., social, experiential, economic, emotional) onto the relationships among deontological evaluation, teleological evaluation, ethical judgment, and intention. Based on a two-by-two randomized experimental design, two shoplifting cases (i.e., swapping price tags, stealing products) are investigated in …

Metaverse Beyond The Hype: Multidisciplinary Perspectives On Emerging Challenges, Opportunities, And Agenda For Research, Practice And Policy, Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes, Abdullah M. Baabdullah, Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete, Mihalis Giannakis, Mutaz M. Al-Debei, Denis Dennehy, Bhimaraya Metri, Dimitrios Buhalis, Reto Felix

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The metaverse has the potential to extend the physical world using augmented and virtual reality technologies allowing users to seamlessly interact within real and simulated environments using avatars and holograms. Virtual environments and immersive games (such as, Second Life, Fortnite, Roblox and VRChat) have been described as antecedents of the metaverse and offer some insight to the potential socio-economic impact of a fully functional persistent cross platform metaverse. Separating the hype and “meta…” rebranding from current reality is difficult, as “big tech” paints a picture of the transformative nature of the metaverse and how it will positively …

An Empirical Comparison Of The Extended Parallel Process Model With The Terror Management Health Model, David M. Hunt, Omar Shehryar

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Extended Parallel Process Model posits that fear-appeal messages are processed only when message recipients perceive a critical level of threat. The more recent Terror Management Health Model suggests that, in addition to level of perceived threat, the nature of the threat also influences how target audiences process fear appeals. Specifically, fear appeals that utilize the threat of death as a consequence trigger both conscious and nonconscious responses that influence message recipients’ health-related decisions. Accounting for the influence of consciousness of death helps explain maladaptive responses that extant theory has been unable to explain. Results from an experiment indicate that, …

What Is Xr? Towards A Framework For Augmented And Virtual Reality, Philipp A. Rauschnabel, Reto Felix, Chris Hinsch, Hamza Shahab, Florian Alt

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality, and Extended Reality (often – misleadingly – abbreviated as XR) are commonly used terms to describe how technologies generate or modify reality. However, academics and professionals have been inconsistent in their use of these terms. This has led to conceptual confusion and unclear demarcations. Inspired by prior research and qualitative insights from XR professionals, we discuss the meaning and definitions of various terms and organize them in our proposed framework. As a result, we conclude that (1) XR should not be used to connote extended reality, but as a more open approach …

Shopping Marketing Tactics That Drive Purchases, Dinesh K. Gauri

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Technology is reshaping the retail experience. In the fight for market share, how effective are traditional marketing tactics and technology offerings at attracting shoppers?

The Forces Changing U.S. Shopping Behavior, Dinesh K. Gauri

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

The future of retail is all about catering to the consumer. To survive retail’s newest challenge, retailers must understand what’s shaping consumer demand.

B2b Ewom On Alibaba: Signaling Through Online Reviews In Platform-Based Social Exchange, Zsófia Tóth, Mona Mrad, Omar S. Itani, Jun Luo, Martin J. Liu

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• The study explores buyers' signaling of observable and unobservable supplier characteristics on the Alibaba e-platform.

• Key B2B eWOM themes that the study identifies are: product/service quality, human touch, responsiveness, and resilience.

• Findings demonstrate that human touch is vital in B2B e-platform environments too, not only in physical reality.

• Buyers' signals aim at suppliers as well as at prospective buyers and implicitly buyers send signals about themselves too.

• Signaling Theory is applied to address the signaling process, while Social Exchange Theory informs relevant cost-benefit assessments.

Abstract

This study investigates the contemporary role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in business exchanges through …

A Measurement Model Of The Dimensions And Types Of Informal Organizational Control: An Empirical Test In A B2b Sales Context, Stacey L. Malek, Shikhar Sarin, Bernard J. Jaworski

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sales organizations are replete with informal forms of organizational control. Despite this, marketing and management literature has primarily focused on the theoretical development and empirical testing of formal, managerial forms of control. One reason research on informal controls has lagged is a lack of comprehensive measurement scales. Specifically, existing measures of the three principal types of informal controls—self, social, and cultural—do not capture the full dimensionality of the constructs (i.e., information, reward, and punishment aspects of informal controls). The authors take steps to remedy this situation by (1) outlining nine distinct dimensional types of informal control based on organizational control …

Complementary Effects Of Crm And Social Media On Customer Co-Creation And Sales Performance In B2b Firms: The Role Of Salesperson Self-Determination Needs, Omar S. Itani, Ashish Kalra, Jen Riley

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Social media, CRM technology & social CRM enrich the knowledge of salespeople.

• Social media, CRM technology & social CRM support value co-creation efforts.

• Knowledge mediates the effects of social media, CRM technology, and social CRM.

• Job autonomy & sales quota ease moderate the effect of knowledge on value co-creation.

• Value co-creation increases sales performance.

Abstract

This study examines the effects of salespeople's social media and customer relationship management (CRM) technology use on value co-creation through knowledge and the downstream impact on sales performance. Based on task-technology fit and self-determination theories, the findings reveal that social media, CRM technology, and …

Salesperson Moral Identity And Value Co-Creation, Omar S. Itani, Larry Chonko, Raj Agnihotri

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of salesperson moral identity centrality in value co-creation. This study identified and tested an extended identity-based formation process of selling orientation, customer orientation and value co-creation. This was accomplished by examining the role of inclusion of others in the self and circle of moral regard in the mechanism through which moral identity centrality impacts selling orientation, customer orientation and value co-creation, taking into account the contingency role of salesperson self-construal.

Design/methodology/approach

An extended identity-behavior model grounded in identity theory and the social-cognitive perspective of moral identity centrality was tested. …

Design Power And Potential Future Of Global Organization Of Life, A. Fuat Firat

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay I propose a definition of design to address its potential role in largely determining power relations in the future. Some foundational discussion of wealth, culturally constructed differently in different historical times, trends of corporatization in the contemporary world, and the birth of control society is presented to help understand the possibilities and difficulties of building future organizations of life. I invite discussions and dialogues to widen and deepen the concept of design power.

Inside Sales Social Media Use And Its Strategic Implications For Salesperson-Customer Digital Engagement And Performance, Nawar N. Chaker, Edward L. Nowlin, Maxwell T. Pivonka, Omar S. Itani, Raj Agnihotri

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• Inside salespeople rely on four main strategies when it comes to using social media in their roles to engage with customers.

• Inside sales strategic social media use leads to higher levels of customer digital engagement and, ultimately, performance.

• Firm digital technology resources may shape the effects of inside sales strategic social media use.

Abstract

The nature of inside sales has shifted, increasing in autonomy, importance, and scope. Moreover, buyers are changing their preferences from face-to-face interactions to virtual-based relationships, leading to a future full of opportunities for inside salespeople using social media. The practitioner literature suggests that inside sales …

Marketing And Market, A. Fuat Firat

Marketing Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, a contradiction that has developed between the key economic institution of modernity, the market, and its institutionalized practices, marketing, is explored. This paper makes observations beyond earlier discussions of this contradiction based on the history of perspectival developments in the orientations of the discipline and in marketing practices. Specifically, separation of marketing practice from consumers resulting in its conceptualization as a provisional set of activities, and the turn from a focus on needs to a focus on exchange resulting in an emphasis on the health of the market rather than on the health of the people are …